Oral administration of vitamin D and importance in prevention of cerebral malaria.
Int Immunopharmacol. 2018 Sep 19;64:356-363. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2018.08.041. [Epub ahead of print]
Wu B1, Du Y2, Feng Y3, Wang Q2, Pang W2, Qi Z2, Wang J4, Yang D5, Liu Y5, Cao Y6.
Cerebral malaria is a severe form of Malaria, which accounts for about half of Malaria deaths
Mice got 2000 IU/kg vitamin D for 5 days in a row before getting PbA (mimicks Cerebral Malaria)
For an 80 kg human, this would have been 160,000 IU per day
800,000 IU total, which is about 2X larger than typical loading doses.
Mice with Vitamin D: all survived
Mice wihout Vitamin D: all dead by 11th day
- Vitamin D and malaria – many studies
- Addition of Vitamin D to experimental cerebral malaria therapy cut the mouse death rate in half – Oct 2016
- Malaria in mice brains, and associated inflammation, prevented by Vitamin D intervention – July 2014
- Infant HIV, Malaria, and high vitamin D – Jan 2015
- Severe malaria 9 percent less likely with each extra 1 nanogram of vitamin D – 2014
Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
Cerebral malaria (CM) is a serious and fatal malaria-associated syndrome caused by the development of an overwhelming proinflammatory response. Vitamin D (Vit.D; cholecalciferol) has regulatory functions associated with both innate and adaptive immune responses. Prevention is better than cure, in this experiment, we evaluated prophylactic oral Vit.D as a means of preventing CM presentation before infection of C57BL/6 mice with Plasmodium berghei ANKA (PbA) by modulating the host proinflammatory response.
Mice that were supplemented with oral Vit.D has reduce death rate and ameliorated the integrity of the blood brain barrier. Prophylactic oral vitamin D relieved the symptoms of brain malaria and avoided death, gained valuable time for the diagnosis and treatment post infection. The robust Th1 response was attenuated in the Vit.D + PbA group. Furthermore, T-cell trafficking to the brain was diminished before PbA infection using Vit.D. The results suggest that Vit.D supplementation mediates the development of an anti-inflammatory environment that improves CM severity. In summary, the use of Vit.D as a nutritional supplement in malaria-endemic regions may help reduce the severity and mortality of CM.